Deez Interviews: Meet the former Hillary for America graphic designer who has tips on avoiding burnout and getting involved in 2018

Happy Friday, Deezers!

This week’s interview is a super cool one with Eric Hartman, a graphic designer who worked on the Hillary 2016 campaign. He’s now at The Atlantic, but we caught up with him to ask a few Qs about what it was like working on a historic campaign, and where he found his biggest inspiration amidst the grind (you might cry. We did.). Enjoy!

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The interviewee: Eric Hartman (follow him on Insta @eric_heartman)

The gig: Former graphic designer for Hillary for America

The hustle: I focused mainly on email design, but it wasn’t uncommon for me to work on campaign merchandise, ads, social graphics, and larger scale branding projects.

So, what were the day-to-day responsibilities of working on Hillary for America???

Every day started with a 10 a.m. design team meeting to review the message of the day. We went over every project we were working on, making sure nothing fell through the cracks. On Tuesdays, we reviewed our competitive research, and on Fridays we all shared our favorite thing we made that week.

Many times, projects came in overnight or early that morning and would be due the same day. The most important thing was to make sure we hit our deadlines. Because the pace of work was so fast, we had a very clear and detailed process that allowed us to make sure projects went through the pipeline without much friction.

Many days required quick check-ins with the email and merch teams, making sure we were all on the same page. Some days I was able to leave work at 8 p.m., some days it was more like 12 a.m.

You also were a designer with National Journal before this campaign, so how did campaign life differ from media life?

On the campaign, you felt the weight and severity of the situation at every moment. Every decision you made could have enormous consequences. In a normal job, a mistake might mean a deadline is missed or a client is unhappy with something, but in the campaign, a mistake could mean that Donald Trump would become president.

Everything we designed was dissected and critiqued by the entire country, and we had to build up a very thick skin. On top of that, we were always on call. An emergency was always (potentially) looming around the corner and we had to be ready for it — even at 4 a.m. if necessary.

How did you avoid burnout while working all those insane hours?

Relationships and commitment to the goal. On the campaign, you are working with the same people 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day, and they become your family. I think it’s rare for everyone in a company to have a singular goal and be equally passionate about it. It was very powerful to be around inspiring, talented people, working together to make history.​

One thing I started doing was waking up a little earlier than necessary, so I would have some undisturbed, alone time before going into the office. But also, there was no way to avoid the exhaustion. Every morning you wake up tired, but you create habits that allow yourself to keep going because you have to keep going — you want to keep going.

How has your professional experience with both media companies & a political campaign informed each other?

Each job has taught me so much as a person and a designer. I’ve learned the importance of regular, constructive feedback and criticism. I’m glad I had a good understanding of that before joining the campaign, because there was no time to be upset if someone didn’t like what you were doing.

I’ve learned empathy in design. Every piece of design, even if you hate it, took someone hours and hours to create, and it deserves a constructive and thoughtful assessment. After the campaign, it was hard to work at a normal job again because the pace is so much slower. But it gave me an opportunity to really dive into the work here at The Atlantic, I was able to make some really great friends right off the bat, and it challenged me to refocus my process.

What were your biggest sources of inspiration while you were designing for the campaign?

To be frank, my inspiration was Hillary’s inclusive message. I believed in fighting for the rights of LGBTQ, women, POC, children, and religious minorities. I believe in her approach to common sense gun laws, because I could no longer watch another person be senselessly shot and then go to work the next day and do nothing. I connected to her policy ideas relating to mass incarceration, climate change, the need to get rid of Citizens United, and affordable healthcare for all. And every day, I was inspired by her lifelong devotion to these issues, and her tireless fight to make a change in this country. [editor’s note: we’re not sobbing yr sobbing]

What was your favorite moment from working for Hillary for America?

The night Hillary accepted the official nomination at the Democratic National Convention. The entire day was electric. We had a wildly busy week, pushing out more content than ever to support our candidate. During her speech, I got a request from the email team. They wanted to send out an email to our supporters, telling them that they “helped make history.” Photography was coming to us in real time, so I chose a photo of Hillary giving her speech, looking poised, calm, thoughtful, and powerful. I finished designing the emails, finished watching her speech, went back to my desk, and started to cry. In that moment it hit me like an emotional ton of bricks — a woman could be the president of the United States.

Ugh, we’ve got shivers now. So, for anyone interested in getting involved professionally on upcoming campaigns, what would you tell them to expect?

Expect long hours and little pay. But also expect to make amazing relationships and gain unparalleled experience along the way. You will find a family you didn’t know you needed. You will become deeply devoted to active citizenship, and a life of ignorance will be no longer imaginable.

It will be the hardest and most challenging thing you will ever do, and it will be the most rewarding and important thing you will ever do. If this is something that interests you (and I hope it is) there are so many resources to help you get started. Whether you want to run for something yourself, design for a campaign or political org, volunteer locally, or work full time on a campaign, the resources are out there. Find a candidate who aligns with your beliefs. Find someone who you want to fight for, before it’s the cool thing to do and before it's a safe bet.​

Stand up for what you believe in by supporting those who validate your beliefs. For designers, we created a website of our work on the campaign. If you were like me before I joined the campaign, you might not know what the hell a campaign design team does. We created this to hopefully continue the conversation, through 2018 and beyond.

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And that’s a wrap on this week! Thanks so much to Eric for being downright inspiring and giving us insight into one of the craziest jobs to have had in 2016. Here’s to a thought-provoking & similarly inspiring weekend!

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